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Oklahoma City Thunder notebook: Rockets' Jeremy Lin 'hopeful' he'll play in Game 3

The guard remains day-to-day with a bruised right chest muscle. His status for Saturday night's game at Toyota Center is uncertain.

BY JOHN ROHDE •
Published: April 25, 2013

Houston Rockets guard Jeremy Lin remains day-to-day with a bruised right chest muscle and his status is uncertain for Game 3 at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday night at Toyota Center.

Houston's Jeremy Lin (7) passes away from Oklahoma City's Kendrick Perkins (5) and Thabo Sefolosha (2) during Game 2 in the first round of the NBA playoffs between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

“Not going to make any promises or anything,” Lin told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday. “I just don't know. Right now, it's just day-to-day. I'm still hopeful, still optimistic. I just learned my lesson about making guarantees.”

As a member of the New York Knicks last season, Lin was unable to return from a knee injury and missed the playoffs.

Lin played all 82 regular-season games this year despite a series of ankle sprains, but removed himself from the lineup just before the start of the third quarter. Lin reportedly suffered the injury on a first-half collision with Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha.

“It feels a lot better,” Lin told the Chronicle. “Tomorrow we're going to work on some more stuff. Today was all range of motion. Tomorrow will hopefully be some jumping. And we'll go from there. See how it responds tomorrow. I really don't know. This is something that should heal quickly. I'm not there yet. I don't know when I will be. Hopefully, soon.

“The worst part was the spasm-ing. That's gone now. Now it's just getting range of motion and getting pain free. I can't shoot today. We tried to do the shooting motion just to get range of motion. Right now I have range of motion, but I don't think I had any force.”

STILL BAD MATH

Thunder coach Scott Brooks said after his team's 105-102 victory in Game 2 on Wednesday night that getting outrebounded 57-40 by a team starting three players 6-foot-5 and under “doesn't add up.”

The math wasn't much better after Brooks reviewed game film.

“We have to make sure we box out,” Brooks said. “It's all about boxing out. It's not about rebounding. It's about making sure your body is in front of the basket. Because they have a lot of 3-point shooters, there's going to be a lot of long rebounds.

“Everybody's been taught to box out. There's a couple of different ways, you just have to get it done. Rebounding is boxing out and getting it done.”